


There’s no Need to Panic, ‘Cause You’re Just as Tragic

by BlueHairedGrace1010



Series: Spark Squad [5]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Healing, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Decommissioning/Reconditioning, Original Character Death(s), Original Character-centric, Physical Abuse, Pre-Canon, Pre-Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing, brothers being brothers, not explicitly shown happening but it's mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:27:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28003878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueHairedGrace1010/pseuds/BlueHairedGrace1010
Summary: Sketch has been hiding things from his younger brothers in an attempt to protect them. Ghost, Pillow, and Morale strongly disagree with this course of action and decide to make it known.
Series: Spark Squad [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1884820
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	There’s no Need to Panic, ‘Cause You’re Just as Tragic

**Author's Note:**

> I am back with another addition to the Spark Squad series everybody! You may applaud when ready! xD Yeah, I know I'm hilarious.
> 
> Sorry that it's been so long. I recently got interested in Kid Icarus: Uprising and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, not to mention school has been a pain, so I was more focused on getting done some one-shots for KI: U/SSBU.
> 
> The title for this story comes from the song,, "Creatures" by Shinedown. My love for these guys hasn't faded in the least!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy and I'll, maybe, have the next part up soon! <3

Ghost stopped crawling, cringing as he heard the loud bang of a head against the roof of the vent, no doubt from Pillow. Despite it being Ghost’s idea to follow Sketch to see where he went in the night, he hadn’t agreed with Pillow’s idea of going through the vents. He would have done this with Morale, but he had too much sleep he needed to catch up on. Things between him and Pillow were still slightly tense.

“Pillow!” Ghost hissed to his brother. “This was your idea and you’re messing it up!”

“So sorry!” Pillow snapped back. ”It’s not my fault these vents are so small!”

Ghost scoffed. “I’m sure I could find a reason.” He ignored the outraged sound that was the response. “I’m sure somebody heard you, so let’s just get out of here while we still can.”

Pillow rolled his eyes. “Sir, yes sir. Guess we’ll just let Sketch keep hiding things from us.”

Ghost took a deep breath. He loved Pillow, but there were moments he really wanted to bang his own head off the wall and scream because of him. “There’s no need to cop an attitude. We can still follow Sketch if we’re quick enou—“

“Who’s there?” a male voice from outside interrupted, cutting through the tension like a knife. It had a touch of authority to it and sounded older than the two. Ghost and Pillow froze, trying to remain quiet. “You can’t stay in there forever.”

Ghost narrowed his eyes, trying to place the owner of the voice. Male, authoritative, older; a trainer perhaps? He started and turned to Pillow as his leg was gently tapped.

“What?” Ghost mouthed to him, glaring.

“Who is it?” Pillow mouthed urgently.

Ghost shook his head, trying to think. If it was a trainer, the two of them would’ve been hauled out of here and dragged off by now. That left... “An older brother,” Ghost whispered.

Pillow was respond, but the outside voice beat him to it, “I’m a brother. It’s just me out here, but that won’t last forever. I promise I won’t rat you out.”

Ghost looked to Pillow for guidance. How he wished he was better at making decisions fit for a leader. Pillow looked thoughtful before nodding, and gestured for Ghost to exit the vent.

Ghost moved to the exit of the vent, and the grate was quietly pulled off for him. He crawled out and quickly stood with Pillow right behind him. Ghost’s eyes went to the brother in front of them, finally getting a good look at him.

He was definitely older, towering over the two younger brothers. He almost looked old enough that if the Jedi called on them today, this brother would be sent. He looked a bit smaller than Ghost remembered other ready-for-deployment brothers had looked, in his height and muscle. His hair was short, but curled just slightly at the end.

Ghost breathed quickly, astounded that he had completely forgotten to stand at-attention and salute a higher-ranked brother. Ghost did so, and Pillow followed suit.

“Names and squad,” the older brother stated.

“CT-6721, Ghost, sir,” Ghost immediately replied.

“CT-6789, Pillow, sir. Spark Squad,” Pillow followed.

The brother nodded. “I won’t report you, but I’m taking you back to the barracks. Don’t get caught doing this again. You’re not always so lucky.” Ghost and Pillow nodded, and then raced to catch up as the older brother led them to the barracks. Ghost was slightly surprised at this brother’s curt and standoffish attitude. “Why were you two sneaking around, risking getting caught?”

Ghost and Pillow glanced at each other, before Ghost sighed. “We were following one of our other squadmates, Sketch, to see where he’s been going this late at night. We’ve been worried about him and he won’t tell us anything.”

The older trooper gave them a glance over his shoulder. “Has he always been this way?”

The both flinched, but Pillow responded, “We, um... We lost one of our squadmates to de-decommissioning recently. We’ve been trying to get through it—and we’ve been making some progress!—but Sketch won’t talk to us anymore.”

“We can’t help him if he won’t let us,” Ghost mumbled.

Ghost noticed that the man leading them had stiffened. What was it for?

“I know he just wants to protect us,” Pillow quickly continued, “but he’s starting to become more like... like Duke. He gets so concerned and overprotective of us that he won’t let us take care of him in return. I’m concerned he’s going to start caring _too_ much and back-talk someone important, just like Duke. We made the mistake of letting that slide with Duke, but we won’t with Sketch. We can’t lose him too.”

The older brother nodded slightly. “It’s... difficult losing a squadmate, especially if you’ve been together since the beginning.”

“Did you lose somebody, too?” Pillow asked, saying without thinking first. Ghost shot him a sharp stare as the older brother flinched.

He sighed and Ghost could hear the tension in voice as he responded, “Yes, I did. To decommissioning.”

“Umm, how did you guys deal with it?” Ghost asked hesitantly, wanting any advice that he could get to help with this situation.

The brother glanced at them. He looked as if he was having trouble about deciding whether to talk about this. Ghost understood; he hated talking about Duke, but if talking about him helped, he was willing to do it.

The brother must’ve noticed their pleading looks and took pity on them. “For the beginning, we mostly just ignored it. We didn’t know how to deal with it. Some of us became clingy, others became closed off.”

“Were you the one who closed himself off?” Ghost asked curiously. This brother’s body language _screamed_ closed off.

He got a slight smirk in response. “Yes. We did eventually manage to work out something, but it took a long time.” He looked back at them. “Don’t let him shut you guys out like that. It will only make it harder in the long-run.”

The three arrived that the barracks. The two younger brothers saluted him. “Thank you, sir,” Ghost said, thanking him for more than just one thing.

Narrowed eyes examined them both, before nodding stiffly. “Remember, this happens again, you will most likely be turned in.” He turned to leave.

“Um, sir? What’s your name?” Pillow quickly asked, wanting to know the name of the brother who had helped him.

The brother stopped walking but didn’t turn around. “...CC-1010, Fox. Go to bed cadets, before the Kaminiise catch you.” Then, their older brother was gone.

They stared after him, in awe. “We were talking to a commander? Or a soon-to-be commander? Wow...” Pillow trailed.

Ghost shook off his amazement. “Come on, he’s right. If we stay out much longer, the droids will notice us come back.”

The two rushed inside, wanting to avoid detection. As they made their way inside their pods, Ghost asked, “So what’re we going to do about Sketch? Confront him?”

Pillow hesitated. “Maybe we should talk to Morale about this before we try to make another move. This one went so well.”

Ghost snorted. “And whose fault was that?”

Eyes rolling, Pillow said, “Night Ghost.”

Ghost hummed and crawled into his pod. He quickly closed himself in and sighed in relief, closing his eyes. He remembered the countless nights he had spent crying in his pod in the immediate aftermath of Duke’s death; he felt the tears building up behind his eyelids. Ghost refused to let them fall. He had cried enough and it was now time to help Sketch.

* * *

“I can’t believe you two did that without me,” Morale muttered bitterly as Ghost dragged him out of his pod the next morning. “I have so much more experience with sneaking around at night than you two do.”

Ghost narrowed his eyes at him. “That’s exactly the point, Morale. You lost so much sleep over the last little bit and you need to catch up on it. Trust me,” Ghost lowered his voice, “if I could’ve done that with you instead of Pillow, I would’ve taken that choice in a heartbeat.”

Morale shrugged. “So what’s the point of telling me this?”

“When Fox was taking us back to the barracks, he told us that we shouldn’t let Sketch shut us out and that it would only make things worse in the long-run,” Pillow said, walking over. “How do you think we should handle this? We all want to help Sketch, but how do we get him to talk to us?”

Morale sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Knowing Sketch, there’s no point in beating around the bush, I guess. It’ll be easier on all of us if we just confront him head-on about it.”

“Okay... So when do we confront him?” Ghost asked. “He’s good at dodging us when he wants to.”

Morale tilted his head in concentration, playing with a strand of his hair. “Right before he leaves tonight. That’s when we’ll talk to him or at least we’ll try to.”

“Agreed,” Ghost and Pillow spoke in unison. Before the three could discuss anything more, Sketch’s pod opened. He rubbed his arms, something he always did for some reason now, and yawned as he climbed out of his pod. He paused mid-yawn, gazing at the three suspiciously.

“What are you guys doing?” he asked, gazing at them intensely, as if trying to look into their souls.

“Nothing!” the three answered together. Morale was smiling earnestly at him, Ghost was looking everywhere except Sketch, and Pillow looked awkward.

“Wanna try that again?” Sketch drily asked, walking towards them.

“Why would we wanna try again?” Pillow questioned. “There’s nothing to tell.”

“Uh huh,” Sketch said, standing with the posture of, ‘I’m the older brother here, don’t lie to me.’

“Well...” Morale started, “Would you look at the time?! Gotta go eat, bye guys!” He rushed out of the barracks.

Pillow pointed at the exit with his thumb. “I’m going to follow him.”

Ghost was left alone with Sketch, who was eyeing him with a really unimpressed stare. “Are you going to tell me the truth, Ghost’ika?”

Ghost quickly made his way to the exit, saying, “I will after you do. See you in training.”

* * *

Ghost lay in his pod, rotating his wrists and ankles repeatedly. He wished he could rock back and forth, but these pods made it impossible, especially since he was slowly getting taller.

He strained his ears, trying to hear for the sound of Sketch’s pod opening. Finally, after what felt like ages, he heard it. The pod closed and Ghost heard someone climbing down.

He took a deep breath and opened his own pod, Morale and Pillow immediately doing the same. “Sketch!” Ghost whispered loudly.

Sketch jumped in surprise, turning to face his three squadmates still up in their pods. “What are you three doing? You could get in _huge_ trouble!”

“The same could be said for you!” Morale retaliated. “You of all people should know the risks, Sketch. You’re the one who convinced me to stop sneaking out!”

Sketch sighed. “Look, guys, it’s for your own good. You don’t want to know and I have to protect you from that.”

“Stop it,” Pillow said, glaring at him. “We do want to know why you’re sneaking out at night! And stop trying to ignore the conversation by pulling the, “For your own good and protection” bit! It won’t work on us, not anymore.”

Sketch looked away for a moment, and Ghost was shocked to noticed that he looked almost awkward, a rare emotion for the eldest brother. “I’m not sneaking out,” Sketch defended himself. “I’ve been given permission. You guys haven’t. Go. Back. To. Bed.”

“No!” Morale responded, beginning to look angry. “Why won’t you tell us? What’s so important that you have to hide it from your own squad? Where are you go—“

“Enough,” Sketch interrupted in a firm tone, looking fed up. “Go back in your pods and shut up. When I get back, I’ll explain it to you guys so you’ll leave it alone, okay? I don’t want you getting caught.” The three remained out, hesitant. “Now!”

Ghost flinched, quickly laying back down and closing the pod. Sketch rarely yelled, especially at them. Now he was really worried. He heard the droids enter and question his elder brother. Sketch assured them that everything was fine and that he was on the way to the... medbay?

Why would he be going there? Ghost hit his head off the bottom the pod. If only Duke was here; he was only one who seemed to be on the same line of authority as Sketch was with them.

* * *

After what felt like hours, Sketch returned to the barracks. It was close to awakening time, but Ghost was too restless to sleep. Ghost quickly opened his pod, alongside the other two. He was shocked to notice just how exhausted Sketch looked.

He noticed the tense anger in Pillow’s body disintegrate. “What happened?” Pillow whispered.

Sketch looked up. “Huh? Oh, right. I said I’d tell you guys, didn’t I?”

Morale nodded firmly. “Yes, you did. And you’re not getting out of this, Sketch, not this time. We are all brothers here and we all protect each other, not just you protecting us.”

Sketch yawned and rubbed his eyes. “Fine.” He sat on the floor underneath Ghost’s pod. The three quickly climbed down and joined him on the floor.

“So?” Morale prompted after a few moments of silence.

Sketch spoke in a dull, detached tone. “When they took me and Duke away, they decided that Duke had disappointed them one too many times and decommissioned him. Since this was the first time something like this has happened to me, they didn’t decommission or recondition me.”

“What did they do?” Ghost questioned, his horror quickly rising.

Sketch’s eyes rapidly moved from place to place, and Ghost was pretty sure those were tears. He was lightly shaking. “They just... punished me, for allowing the situation get out of control. It wasn’t even that bad.”

“And yet, you have to go to the medbay every night,” Pillow sarcastically muttered. “Perfectly fine.”

Sketch glared at him, the shaking and tears becoming more intense. He slowly pulled up the sleeves of his shirt. Ghost couldn’t hold back his gasp, and neither could Morale and Pillow.

The entirety of Sketch’s arms were covered in bruises of varying colour and scratches. The bright red of the scratches heavily contrasted the blues, blacks, and yellows of the bruises. Ghost felt tears coming into his eyes again.

“The Kaminoans did this to you?” Morale asked, choking on his voice and staring at Sketch’s arms in horror.

Sketch barely nodded. Ghost jumped at the sound of Pillow smacking a fist on the floor. “And you never thought to tell us that you were hurt, Sketch? I always thought you were the smartest out of all of us, but maybe you’re actually the dumbest.”

“I had to!” Sketch replied, becoming hysterical. “Duke is gone and I’m the only one left to take care of you three! I _have_ to protect you guys now! It’s my duty!”

Morale sniffed. “Please stop it, Sketch.” Sketch took a few deep breaths and looked at him. “You’re becoming _so_ much like Duke. You want to take care of us so badly that you won’t let us take care of you in return. That’s what brothers do; we all look after each other.”

Sketch wiped at his eyes quickly. “But you guys didn’t stop Duke from acting like that with you.”

Ghost nodded. “And that was a big mistake. Maybe things would be different if we had put our foots down sooner, maybe it wouldn’t be, but we’re not allowing you to go down this path, Sketch’ika. You’re not allowed to leave us.”

Sketch closed his eyes, trying to force his tears back. Morale grabbed his cheeks and Sketch’s eyes opening in response. “Don’t do that, Sketch. You’re allowed to grieve for him, too. You are safe to breakdown now, if you need it.”

Sketch shook his head, even as his tears spilled over. “I don’t need it, I need to stay strong for you guys.”

Pillow rolled his eyes, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Have you not been listening to us, idiot? We take care of each other, not just you taking care of us.”

“We are brothers and we are in this together,” Ghost continued. “It’s okay to cry Sketch. We’ll be right here the whole time and we’ll be safe. You can relax for a minute.”

Sketch sniffled, and then Morale was pressing his older brother’s face into his neck. “It’s alright, Sketch’ika. Let it out.” Sketch let out a weak sob.

Pillow and Ghost joined the hug, arranging it in a way that Sketch was in the middle of the hug. “You aren’t leaving us, Sketch,” Ghost whispered, “and we’re not leaving you.”

Pillow shoved his face into Sketch’s shoulder. “Thank you for helping us. Now, let us help you. That’s an order.”

Sketch let out a weak, wet laugh. “I’ll try. Call me out when I’m... going overboard?”

Morale snorted. “Oh, that won’t be a problem. We’re still brothers, after all.”

Ghost smiled into the hug. There was still a long way to go, and this certainly wouldn’t be an easy ride because Sketch was no doubt going to be stubborn; but for the first time since Duke had been forcibly taken from them, Ghost felt like they would be able to get through this together.

He looked forward to seeing how this turned out for all of them, but for now, Ghost sat on the floor with his remaining squadmates, joined together in a group hug. He ignored the awakening of other brothers in their nearby pods, focusing solely on his eldest brother. Sketch needed him and Ghost was determined to not let history repeat itself.

**Author's Note:**

> FanFiction.net: Blue-Haired-Wonder
> 
> Tumblr: blue-haired-grace
> 
> Wattpad: Anahita-Acada


End file.
